Fabio Gatto is the person behind pretty much everything heard on debut Humm album ‘No Empathy Before Doomsday’ and it’s a somewhat strange post blackened journey that he takes us on. It does seem that he has some empathy though as opener ‘Bloodred Whales Chase’ strikes as a call out for the ceasing of whaling rather than some mad, zealous ode to catching them ala Moby Dick. It’s delivered in a very odd style to and sets you up for the rest of the album wondering what crazed sort of thing you have stumbled across. Its message is garbled and gurgles out on an ambient backdrop, sounding really alien almost from another world maybe one that is submerged like its underwater muse. From here ‘Poseidon’ rises with fast and vigorous fretwork chugging away and the vocals still rasping and viscous, quite unique in their delivery and certainly not in a style that you could easily draw comparison to. It’s all quite eccentric with some musical twists and turns transporting it away from any linear conventions. There is some weight behind it as well as quite a strong melody, guitars flail and scythe but it’s quite an obtuse sound that makes you wonder just what is going on in the head of its proprietor.
As it progresses there is an almost Indie feel to the jangling guitar clamour on ‘Nephilim’ which sharply bristles away with that post blackened fervour. A bit more bass definition would not do this any harm and the bottom end is somewhat lost here in the mix, still it works making it all the more razor sharp and tight. Those vocals are thick and rasping until the track goes into free-fall jamming away in a frenzy before dropping out into acoustic interlude and breaking into a solo that could be out of a cheesy rock song. It’s all handled in a precise fashion and it’s obvious that the musician has plenty of ideas. These develop further as a fuzzy tremble takes us into My Brother’s Light and bass finally bites in with a classic doom riff taking over. I was really not expecting this at first but the head worked away in appreciation to the riffing which combined with the rasping and some spoken word parts took this in several directions at once.
On a whole the album is interesting but there’s something about it that makes it difficult listening, there’s a spark missing here and at times it just doesn’t gel together and I keep coming back to that word ‘obtuse’ again. Perhaps as often happens doing everything yourself can be a case of trying to do too much and sometimes ideas work better when shared and expanded with the help of others. Humm are definitely onto something though and the uniqueness of the vocals is the key point here. I found myself quite distracted at times, finishing on a long instrumental ‘Autumn’ despite it just about to roll in seasonally seemed like a bad choice too and lacked the atmosphere I would have wanted, prolonging an album I had on the whole had enough of. Still plenty of time for ideas to be developed here and there are some good ones, ‘Blank Premonition’ being particularly intense, rugged and formidable.
(6.5/10 Pete Woods)
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